Soft wood floor over radiant - Tamarack Larch

[Fi-Q]

I know, the best wood floor we can have over radiant is Engineered, but it is quite expensive too.... So far, for the little «i shop, engineered hard wood floor with low or no VOC are around 8$ sqft. So just for the second floor, it'S the price of my eventual wood boiler !.

Lot of my friends have put tamarcak larc floor in there house. It's making an awesome looking floor, the grain id really prominent, i like it, I.ve seen some that were stain too, it awesome. But none of my friends have radiant floor. And as it's not hard wood, I wouldn't put in in the living room or kitchen.

I am thinking of putting in in the 4 bedroom of the second floor. I have a lot of tamarack larch on my property. So when / if ever «i have time, I could easilly cut 50 tree and get my flooring out of it. I will go with staple under for radiant heat for my second floor !

What do you guys think ? Is soft wood floor can be suitable for radiant heat ?

I could go with narrow plank, 2 to 2.5 in, and even thinking of maybe getting it quarter sawn. I thnik I can get it cut & dry (under 15% humidity) for under 1$ per sqft. Then I would have to install it (Most likely myself) and either oil or varnish.

Any opinon on this ? More the house getting finish, the priority & the budget are changing, and it's not necesairlay a good thing... but I've seen worst.....

 

[ewdudley]

If it was me, spending your money, I'd go with staple-up under the floor plus enough additional radiant panel radiators to make a sure thing of it.

Then you wouldn't have to push the underfloor temperatures so much as to risk damaging the flooring, but you could still have the luxury of some warmth in the floors.

You could just skip the under floor radiant and go straight radiant panels, but luxury is nice, and it's your money, so I'd definitely say do both.

 

[in hot water]

Softwoods can get along just fine with radiant. Keep the temperatures as low as possible, consider 9 or even 6" on center tube spacing for your best output at low supply temperatures. Heat transfer plates really help move the energy to the floor evenly and also help with low temperature operation.

Controlling the humidity is one of the best things you can do for wood flooring. Acclimate it to the building before you install it, then keep the humidity as constant as possible.

T&G is a must to allow some movement and a micro bevel on the joint helps hide any movement gaps when the wood does move. Narrow boards are often recommended also.

I once installed radiant under a 2X12 hem/fir plank floor against my better judgement and some gaps opened to a 3/4" inch! The contractor had a black building paper installed below the wood to help hide the gaps, knowing that those wide soft boards would shrink.

Remember the early pickup trucks with wood floors. They used a metal cover piece between the boards to hide the gaping.

hr

 

[Fi-Q]

Well. I sure don't want any 3/4 gap in my floor.... But will definetly Look At putting the pex closer, 4 to 6 inches apart instead of 8. And will see, now i just need
To find some time off to first, get home Than thinking about cutting some trees. And eventually end up with a finish house, maybe one day, with a indoor wood boiler.